It must be recognized that the past two decades really have ushered in the New Order of the Ages that is proclaimed on the back of our $1 bills. I like "New World Order" better, but apparently that's not an acceptable translation. Same difference.
Anyway, this article by Gregg Easterbrook in the NY Times claims that the sea, air, land, and space arms races are essentially over, and that every nation has surrendered and resigned itself to American superiority. He makes some persuasive points, including
global military spending, stated in current dollars, peaked in 1985, at $1.3 trillion, and has been declining since, to $840 billion in 2002. That's a drop of almost half a trillion dollars in the amount the world spent each year on arms. Other nations accept that the arms race is over.He concludes his article by arguing that the result of this American superiority may be a strengthened desire among some nations to acquire nuclear weapons -- the only trump card that could possibly discourage American military action.
Frankly, I see it as inevitable that every country will at some point possess nuclear weapons. They're expensive and complicated, of course, but as technology advances the difficulties will grow less and less. This inevitability is the primary reason that it is essential for America and our allies to spread our New political Order to the rest of the world, and to encourage, coerce, and even force other nations into the liberal democratic mold. It is essential to our long-term security, and even to the survival of humanity as a species. With great power comes great responsibility, as we've been told, and the awesome power of nuclear weapons cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of autocratic dictators whose only goals are their own survival.
We can discuss the morality of forcibly changing other nations' governments later, but it seems very simple to me. A dictator like Castro or Mugabe has no more right to rule a nation than I do, and far less right than the people of that nation themselves.
(Article found via Donal Sensing.)
"This inevitability is the primary reason that it is essential for America and our allies to spread our New political Order to the rest of the world, and to encourage, coerce, and even force other nations into the liberal democratic mold. It is essential to our long-term security, and even to the survival of humanity as a species.".
This is a direct quote from your "Novus Ordo Seclorum" article. ARE YOU NUTS? Or are you simply misinformed? A liberal democracy? Show me one throughout history that has not become a tyrannical dictatorship. You CAN'T, sir. The United States of America was FOUNDED as a Representative Republic. Fifty years ago if you'd encountered the word "democracy" in most American texts, and ESPECIALLY Military Manuals, it would have been refered to a an evil system, bent on tryanny, the abolishment of civil/human rights, and the total enslavement of the governed.
I sincerely hope that you will research this and educate yourself as to the TRUTH, rather than simply distributing the same Liberal rhetoric your obviously intelligent mind has been crammed full of.
Quite Sincerely,
Simon Boone.
Sorry I'm too "liberal" for you, ha.
By "liberal" I, of course, meant "free". You seem to think I meant politically leftist, or something like that.
And we're still a Republic, but for most people the lines have blurred. I agree with you that pure Democracy has very certain pitfalls.